Friday 29 November 2013

Worldshare Trial at Goldsmiths library

I haven't managed to post here in a long while, but the FIL committee have been very forgiving! This term I was seconded to the REF2014 team, and as you can imagine it's been hectic up to this Friday's deadline. Our institutional repository is managed by library staff, and had a large part to play in getting the data ready for submission (which was eventually successful!).




As I explained in my last post, Goldsmiths are currently trialling OCLC Worldshare as a solution for our international requests. Because of my secondment I was only getting a little bit of practice at using it, and my line manager, who was covering my work and managing serials, didn't have time to explore all the functionality Worldshare offers. This week however, we both took park in a Webinar with a member of staff from OCLC who took us through the processes of sending borrowing requests and answered any questions we had along the way. I'm still not sure I'm convinced there isn't too much duplication of effort in using Worldshare. And personally I prefer just sending an email to international libraries and getting a full response from a human, rather than BL-style reply codes. But I'm ready to be convinced by Worldshare and will persevere! As always I'll keep you updated.

-Lucy Lambe

Friday 22 November 2013

Doing things we've always done, or why change is sometimes difficult and a long time coming...

So for those of you who've seen me recently you may have thought that I'm more absent minded / stressed / ranty / wrinkled than in former days, and there is a good reason for this - my husband and I are trying to buy our first house.

For those of you who have not yet decided to take the plunge, let me tell you, you cannot imagine the immaculate combination of stressful and hectic arranging of things and incredibly long periods of hanging around waiting for other people to do things. It's a hurry up and wait roller coaster of epic proportions - Alton Towers would be proud.

We seal the legal documents with wax - we've always done it like that...

Well the one thing I think most would agree on is that the legal aspects of the process seem shrouded in mystery and take what seems like a ridiculous amount of time in this age of instant electronic communication and mobile technology. Now I should say at this point that our solicitor has been great - she always responds to emails and phone calls promptly, is organised about chasing our case and has been great at keeping us appraised of the situation, but often she has not been able to pass significant stages in the process because another solicitor in the chain won't return phone calls / doesn't have the file available / can't be arsed (OK I made the last one up....) It feels to someone on the outside of the process that it's a bit outdated because they've always done it that way, and no one has ever thought, "let's try doing something different, it might work better that way."

So what has this all got to do with interlending I hear you ask...

Well let's get this straight, I have no idea abut the legal complexities of purchasing property, so although I like to rant about it I can't really comment on the way it should be done. However, something happened last week that made me think twice about the way we've always done something in our inter-library loans team.

It's a small thing but we always apply to the British Library for items first as a matter of course - only if they can't supply do we search for other locations. Where the BL can't supply, this does undeniably cause a delay to the reader, but I was happy in the idea that the time we saved searching at the beginning made up for this delay where it happened. At the recent FIL@BL St Pancras event at the British Library conference centre (very good ginger biscuits) I found that about a two thirds majority of attendees search for locations first and then apply to a library they are pretty certain can supply. This was a surprise to me and I could see how doing things this way would  mean more items arrive quicker. Change is sometimes difficult and a long time coming but now I'm thinking "let's try doing something different, it might work better that way."

Natalie
FIL membership secretary

Wednesday 13 November 2013


     


Miss Marple, Sherlock Holmes? –What kind of ILL detective are you?



                                



Anyone who is a fan of fictional detectives will know that David Suchet is hanging up his famous moustache and giving his little grey cells a much earned rest as he bids a farewell to his character Hercule Poirot.

 I am a bit of a fan of detective stories in general and I always enjoy the way the detective unravels all the evidence and finds things that no-one else seems to find. I also realised that this is why I enjoy my work in interlibrary loans because sometimes I get to be the detective. A reader brings in an obscure citation or half a citation and says ‘this is vital for me, please can you try and find it’. And then you’re off on your own detective adventure, searching databases, sometimes even trying to track down the whereabouts of authors.

 It is always both satisfying and gratifying when you find an item for a reader that is from half way across the world and even better when the other library says ‘yes of course you can borrow it’. Sad case though I might be:  it always makes my day. Just this week we received four photocopies of chapters from an obscure proceedings, only available in the Czech Republic. It’s really great to see an international spirit of co-operation in interlending.

Anyway must get back to work- have just received some interesting items from a mysterious place called Boston Spa :)
   



 


photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ollieolarte/3028314931/">olarte.ollie</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">cc</a>

Wednesday 6 November 2013

Marketing our Service...... Cardiff Met style!

Marketing our Service..................Cardiff Met style!

I'm always looking to market the service in a more streamlined & professional manner, at the recent FIL Conference I was able to see the excellent products that REP Industries offer to the Inter Library Loans Community - and was particularly taken with the book straps.

On return to work, I made a case to my manager and was able to secure funding for a batch of the book straps. We had recently gone through a name & logo change so I consulted with my colleagues in our Creative Services department who provided REP Industries with the correct image for our strap, the result is below:



I have to say, I'm really impressed with the quality of the product and the service we received from REP Industries.

FIL related news now, we had our first 'newly formed' committee meeting back in October in Birmingham, with planning for Interlend14 high on the agenda. I'll say no more as Su Fagg is heading up the conference team and she can update you on all things Edinburgh when we have more news to share.

We're also planning some changes to the FIL Newsletter - but I'll let Tracey the Newsletter Editor fill you in on those.

FIL @ BL St Pancras is just over a week away, unfortunately I'm unable to attend as it's Mr L's big 40 birthday! What better way to celebrate than to go here :-)
However I digress, those attending the afternoon event may catch a glimpse of a new & quirky initiative that FIL is going to be working on over the next few months, I can't say more than that at the moment but for those attending FIL @ BL St Pancras I'd be interested to know your thoughts! I hope you all enjoy the day!


Enough from me, time to find my Minnie Mouse ears!

Marie
FIL Chair